XLR8R

Fujiya and Miyagi’s postmodern machinations are populated by the meta-pop equivalent of J.G. Ballard’s Dr. Vaughan: Always searching for that ultimate Crash; the impact of technology that will allow a humanness to re-emerge. It’s music both literary and funny, critically challenging and set for the dancefloor or stadium. On 2006’s brilliant Transparent Things, the band performed on a precision catwalk between Finnegan’s Wake and a Burroughs’ cut-up; Kraftwerk, Krautrock, and The Fall. Lightbulbs continues this gorgeous perversity, with songs about Bobby Bresson and Bobby Fischer, Olympic sports and lazy summer ice cream, all set to tight-arsed breakbeats and circa-’79 synths. Little has changed since Transparent Things, and that’s the highest compliment F&M could receive.